The Sandman #4

The Sandman — billed here as the "Master of Nightmares" — surges out of a billowing dream cloud in his striking yellow-and-red costume, urgently calling out to young Jed, who lies trapped in his bed below while a crowd of grotesque green nightmare creatures closes in from every side. It's a vivid, kinetic image straight from the imagination of Jack Kirby, whose "power-packed art" the cover proudly announces, inked with crisp confidence by Mike Royer. Michael Fleisher's story "Panic in the Dream Stream" promises exactly the kind of dreamworld tension this cover delivers so effectively — a 1975 DC adventure that makes the boundary between sleep and danger feel thrillingly thin.